System and method for participation in interactive applications

ABSTRACT

A system for interactive participation in applications is provided. The system includes a computing device having a processor and an interactive application accessible by a user of the computing device. The interactive application is operable for selecting multiple participants to invite to participate in the interactive application. The interactive application is operable to promote communicating a signal to one or more other computing devices associated with the invited participants. At least some of the invited participants use the associated other computing devices to select to participate in the interactive application with the user of the computing device in response to receiving the signal from the computing device regarding participation in the interactive application.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure is directed to an architecture and applications to support interactive applications, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation to, a system to initiate an invitation to an interactive application that multiple users may actively participate in simultaneously.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are situations when multiple users may participate in an interactive application such as games, collaborative business applications and so on. A person may desire to invite one or more people to participate in the interactive application. There are methods to inform other users about participation in an interactive application such as by e-mail, instant messaging, voice call or voice mail. An organizer of such an interactive application may need to spend considerable time setting-up the application before inviting the other participants. Invited participants may need, for example, to enter commands to log-in or connect to a server in order to participate, and enter passwords or other codes. The participants may also need to select the specific interactive application to use, and so on. The organizer may also need to send messages or make voice calls to determine whether non-participating invitees have decided not to participate or whether they are actually just having technical difficulties in participating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one embodiment, a system for interactive participation in applications is provided. The system includes first and second devices. The first device is operable by a user for selection of an application for participation with multiple participants. The first device is further operable for selection of at least one participant to engage in the application. The second device is in communication with the first device and is operable by at least one participant. The second device is operable for the at least one participant to select to participate in the application with the user of the first device in response to receiving a signal from the first device regarding participation in the application.

In another embodiment, a system for interactive participation in applications is provided. The system includes a computing device having a processor and an interactive application accessible by a user of the computing device. The interactive application is operable for selecting multiple participants to invite to participate in the interactive application. The interactive application is operable to promote communicating a signal to one or more other computing devices associated with the invited participants. At least some of the invited participants use the associated other computing devices to select to participate in the interactive application with the user of the computing device in response to receiving the signal from the computing device regarding participation in the interactive application.

In still other embodiments, a method is provided for participation in applications. The method includes selecting, by an organizer, an application. The method includes selecting, by the organizer, multiple participants to invite to participate in the application. The method includes sending invitations to at least some of the invited participants, and at least some of the invited participants receiving a signal related to being invited to participate in the application. The method includes at least some of the participants selecting to participate in the application in response to receiving the signal. The method includes the organizer and at least some of the invited participants participating in the application in response to at least some of the participants selecting to participate.

These and other features and advantages will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the presentation and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following brief description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an event diagram of a system to create an application group for an interactive application, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, where a user may use a client application user interface on a wireless device to setup a gaming group that may be used to invite multiple users of wireless devices to participate in an interactive application.

FIG. 3 is an event diagram of a system to initiate an invitation to an interactive application, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in this case for the user to invite multiple users of the interactive application group to participate in an the interactive application using a previously created interactive application group.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a computer system operable for some of the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile device operable for some of the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

It should be understood at the outset that although an exemplary implementation of one embodiment is illustrated below, the present system may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or in existence. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below, including the exemplary design and implementation illustrated and described herein, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.

Wireless device and personal computer users participate in interactive applications where multiple users may participate simultaneously. Although the term application is herein, it is intended to include, but is not limited to, online games, business applications and any other interactive or collaborative applications whereby multiple users in different locations using the same or different computing devices may participate, collaborate, or interact with one another via the application. For the purpose of clarity for this disclosure, a game or video game will be used as the exemplary interactive application, but it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to games and might be any of the above-described or other types of applications.

To participate in an interactive game, a person may wish to connect with the gaming server using, for example, a wireless device, personal computer or other device. A wireless device may be, but is not limited to, a digital, cellular and other wireless handset or phone, PDA's, portable or other computer or computing devices and so on. Many online games allow multiple users to play in an interactive manner with other users of the game. As discussed above, the current systems for inviting and participating with multiple people in interactive applications, such as games, are cumbersome and inefficient.

The present disclosure provides a system where an organizer using, for example, a mobile handset, selects a game, identifies a list of participants to invite and selects to send an invitation to those participants. According to one embodiment, when the game and participants are have been established, the organizer may simply need to select one button or make a single or simplified input to initiate the game and invitations, or push-to-game if you will. The application organizing the game may be a client on the mobile handset, or other architectures or configurations may be used, some of which will be discussed hereinafter. The participants receive invitations according to various methods and then select, again by a single or simplified input or command, to begin participating in the game or application. It should be noted that the organizer of one game, may be a participant in the games of other organizers. The organizer as noted herein is the user that selects the game and the participants to invite and initiates game setup and play.

The invitations may be in various forms such as user interfaces on a mobile handset whereby the user selects, for example, “Yes” or “No” to begin play, or a special ring-tone on the wireless device indicative of an invitation to play a particular game and soliciting a response. In some embodiments only the organizer is able to invite participants; however, in other embodiments, other group members are able to invite others to participate at any given time. A group member may wish to indicate to other group members whether or not at any point in time the member is willing to possibly participate in a game.

A presence server may be used to determine whether the participants are accessible via the participant's mobile handset. Once the invitation is received by one or more people, the group member invited may choose whether or not to participate. Invitees in meeting or otherwise unable to participate may enable a “Do Not Disturb” or other feature on their mobile handset or system which may be automatically interpreted as declining the invitation to participate. The disclosure provides that the organizer of a game or application may set a minimum number of group members or participants needed to initiate game play. Once the minimum number of participants accept the invitation to play, the game is started. If the minimum number of players is not met after a given amount of time, the organizer may decide to either wait for a longer period of time for other members to join or the organizer may cancel the invitation for game play to all group members.

In one embodiment, users may create interactive application groups in order to more easily facilitate taking part in the interactive application between one or more users. The organizer is provided with information regarding participants, such as identifying those participants that are located by the presence server, those that have joined, those declining, and other relevant information.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a block diagram is shown according to one embodiment, of a system for multiple users to simultaneously participate in an interactive application. An IP core network 20 may be used as the first point of contact for a wireless device 10 that may be, but is not limited to, a digital, cellular and other wireless phones, PDA's, portable computers and so on. For the purposes of this disclosure, the IP core network 20 is used for access to the Internet. The IP core network 20 may also be the first point of contact for a personal computer 15. It will be appreciated that the organizer and/or participant may be using a mobile handset, such as the wireless device 10, or may be using a laptop, desktop, workstation or other computers, such as the personal computer 15. For purposes of clarity, the wireless device 10 may be used to illustrate the interface to the interactive application.

The wireless device 10 communicates wirelessly with the IP core network 20 via communication channel 100. The IP core network 20 may route the data sent by the wireless device 10 to a server 25 via communication channel 120. The server 25 may be defined as the hardware and software that runs on a host that relays information to a client upon the client sending it a request. Servers 25 are selected from, but not limited to, application servers, web servers, database servers, and so forth.

A presence server 30 may be used to determine if participants in a group are available, such as whether the participant's wireless device is present and accessible by the wireless network. The presence server 30 is also operable for authenticating and authorizing requests, read/write presence information, updating and maintaining group lists, subscribe and unsubscribe for group lists, etc. In one embodiment, the presence server 30 may be a separate server or may reside on or be combined with the server 25. An initiate application server 40 may be used to send invitations to other users to participate in an interactive application as well as establishing connections for users in order to participate in the interactive application. In one embodiment, the initiate application server 40 may be a separate server or may reside on the server 25.

In one embodiment, the application or game may be provided or reside on, or be launch or run on an application server 35. The application server 35 may be a server such as the server 25 that may be used to hold the instructions used to play the interactive application. The interactive application may reside or run on other servers, on the personal computer 15, the wireless device 10, or elsewhere. In some embodiments, a client application 5 may be provided on the personal computer 15 and/or the wireless device 10. The client application 5 may include or be associated with the application or game or promote the operation of the application or game. In such an embodiment, the server 35 may include all or portion of the game or application as well. Other architectures and dispositions of the applications/games will readily suggest themselves to one skilled in the art and are within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

A client application 5 is illustrated as provided on the wireless device 10 and personal computer 15. In other embodiments, the client application 5 may not actually reside on, but instead only be accessible by the wireless device 10 and personal computer 15 and reside elsewhere in the system. The client application 5 may include various components for setting-up, organizing, initiating, and playing the interactive application and/or game. For example, the client application 5 may have various user interfaces or windows helpful for identifying and organizing participants, groups, and so on and relating or associating these participant(s)/group(s) to the game(s) to be played.

For example, each game may have a different group of participants. The client application 5 may have tools so that the organizer can easily edit participants for a particular game, copy groups from one game to another, edit game and participant information, and so on. The client application 5 may include information and settings such as how many participants must join before the game is started, and what to do if fewer than the minimum, or perhaps more than the maximum, number join. When fewer join, the organizer, via the client application 5, may select to cancel the game, continue to wait for other participants to join, or attempt to re-invite or otherwise contact other participants. Each of these and other options may be selectable, such as via a check-box, in the client application 5 user interface.

Specific setting for each game or other local or global parameters for game play or participation may be set via the client application 5. The client application 5 may have intuitive inputs that anticipate and auto-fill fields based on previous inputs or learned behavior by the organizer. The client application 5 may have standard inputs and selection components well known to those skilled in the art and may include, but are not limited to, graphical user interfaces common in mobile handsets and computers. These navigation and selection components may be similar to those found in Microsoft Window or other standard off-the-shelf software applications that come standard on computers, mobile handsets, or personal digital assistants and may include standard pull-down menus and other menuing components and graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Turning now to FIG. 2, an event diagram is depicted that describes a system where a user of the wireless device 10 uses the client application 5 to setup a gaming group that may be used to invite multiple users having wireless devices 10 to participate in an online game. The user via the client application 5 sends a request 200 to the initiate application server 40 to create a gaming group. The initiate application server 40 then receives and maintains the parameters from the user for the gaming group 205. The user client application 5 may then request the initiate application server 40 to add one or more participants to the gaming group 210.

The user may populate the gaming group from information keyed in manually, selected or imported from the address book, or imported or accessed from other systems of the mobile device 10. The initiate application server 40 receives the request and adds the participants to the gaming group. The presence server 30 provides the information as to whether each gaming group member is available and willing to participate 215. The organizer, via the client application 5, may then request the games available to choose from 220 which are provided 225 by the initiate applications server 40. The user has the opportunity to choose which game is to be used for the gaming group along with setting the minimum number of gaming group members needed to play the game 230. The initiate application server 40 then sets the game selected by the user for this gaming group and also sets the selected minimum number of participants needed to initiate game play 235.

The gaming group created also allows for any gaming group member to indicate whether they expect to be available and are interested in participating. This may include requesting that the participant complete a request, such as a survey, indicating whether or not the participant would be interested in playing, favorable or expected play times, and so on. The participant may complete and return the survey, which is used by the organizer to set-up the game and participants. This will allow any user to see how many possible gaming group members may be willing to play at a particular time. Based on this information, such as if several of the gaming group members indicate they do not expect to be available for game play at particular times or are not interested, the organizer, via the client application 5, may decide to reschedule the game and invite the members to participate at a later time when more gaming group members indicate they are available. The gaming group is now ready be used to initiate game play with all available gaming group members. In some embodiments, the organizer may know that certain participant(s) are willing and interested in playing a game. In this case, the organizer may merely select to add these participant(s) to the group without any response or other communication from the participant(s).

Turning now to FIG. 3, an event diagram is depicted that describes a system for the organizer to send via the wireless device 10 an invitation to one or more users of wireless devices 10 or personal computers 15 to participate in an interactive game. In this diagram, a gaming group previously created is requested 300 from the server 25. The organizer, via the user interface of the client application 5, may select a single or simplified input or keystroke to initiate game play. The application server 35 may then be used to set-up game connections with other devices and informs the initiate application server 40 when the connections are ready 305.

In one embodiment, the application server 35 sets up the gaming connections and informs the initiate application server 40 when the connections are ready. The wireless device 10 attempts to initiate the invitation to the gaming group members and is now accepted into the game 310 by the application server 35. The initiate application server 40 launches the game and a link to the application server 35 to all members of the gaming group along with sending an invitation to play the game to all gaming members that are available 315. In one embodiment, several gaming group members may accept the invitation to play 320, causing a connection to be made 325 with the application server 35 and the gaming group members whom accepted the invitation to play.

In one embodiment, participants are provided with the client application 5 on their respective wireless devices 10 or personal computers 15 as well. The participants may receive the invitation to participate in the game or application in the form of a signal, unique ring-tone, pop-up window or interface notice, or so on. The participant, via the client application 5, selects via a single or simplified input or keystroke to accept (or decline) to participate and then begins participation in the game or application. Once the minimum number of players required to start the game is achieved 330, the initiate application server 40 may then notify the application server 35 to start the game 335. The game is in progress between the organizer of the game and all gaming group members who accepted the invitation to play. Should the minimum number of players not be achieved, the game play may not be initiated or the organizer may choose to wait a longer period of time for the other group members to accept to play or the organizer may decide to initiate play even though the minimum number of players was not achieved.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a block diagram of a typical, general-purpose computer system suitable for implementing one or more embodiments disclosed herein. The computer system 380 includes a processor 382 (which may be referred to as a central processor unit or CPU) that is in communication with memory devices including secondary storage 384, read only memory (ROM) 386, random access memory (RAM) 388, input/output (I/O) 390 devices, and network connectivity devices 392. The processor may be implemented as one or more CPU chips.

The secondary storage 384 is typically comprised of one or more disk drives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data and as an over-flow data storage device if RAM 388 is not large enough to hold all working data. Secondary storage 384 may be used to store programs which are loaded into RAM 388 when such programs are selected for execution. The ROM 386 is used to store instructions and perhaps data which are read during program execution. ROM 386 is a non-volatile memory device which typically has a small memory capacity relative to the larger memory capacity of secondary storage. The RAM 388 is used to store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to both ROM 386 and RAM 388 is typically faster than to secondary storage 384.

I/O 390 devices may include printers, video monitors, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), touch screen displays, keyboards, keypads, switches, dials, mice, track balls, voice recognizers, card readers, paper tape readers, or other well-known input devices. The network connectivity devices 392 may take the form of modems, modem banks, ethernet cards, universal serial bus (USB) interface cards, serial interfaces, token ring cards, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) cards, wireless local area network (WLAN) cards, radio transceiver cards such as code division multiple access (CDMA) and/or global system for mobile communications (GSM) radio transceiver cards, and other well-known network devices. These network connectivity 392 devices may enable the processor 382 to communicate with an Internet or one or more intranets. With such a network connection, it is contemplated that the processor 382 might receive information from the network, or might output information to the network in the course of performing the above-described method steps. Such information, which is often represented as a sequence of instructions to be executed using processor 382, may be received from and outputted to the network, for example, in the form of a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave

Such information, which may include data or instructions to be executed using processor 382 for example, may be received from and outputted to the network, for example, in the form of a computer data baseband signal or signal embodied in a carrier wave. The baseband signal or signal embodied in the carrier wave generated by the network connectivity 392 devices may propagate in or on the surface of electrical conductors, in coaxial cables, in waveguides, in optical media, for example optical fiber, or in the air or free space. The information contained in the baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrier wave may be ordered according to different sequences, as may be desirable for either processing or generating the information or transmitting or receiving the information. The baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrier wave, or other types of signals currently used or hereafter developed, referred to herein as the transmission medium, may be generated according to several methods well known to one skilled in the art.

The processor 382 executes instructions, codes, computer programs, scripts which it accesses from hard disk, floppy disk, optical disk (these various disk based systems may all be considered secondary storage 384), ROM 386, RAM 388, or the network connectivity devices 392.

The system described above may be implemented on any hand-held, portable, or mobile wireless electronic device, such as wireless device 10, which is well known to those skilled in the art. An exemplary wireless device 180 for implementing one or more embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated in FIG. 5. The wireless device 180 includes a processor 1210 (which may be referred to as a central processor unit or CPU) that is coupled to a first storage area 1220, a second storage area 1230, an input device 1240 such as a keypad, and an output device such as a display screen 200.

The processor 1210 may be implemented as one or more CPU chips and may execute instructions, codes, computer programs, or scripts that it accesses from the first storage area 1220 or the second storage area 1230. The first storage area 1220 might be a non-volatile memory such as flash memory. The second storage area 1230 might be firmware, or other non-volatile storage for data, or a similar type of memory.

While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents. For example, the various elements or components may be combined or integrated in another system or certain features may be omitted, or not implemented.

Also, techniques, systems, subsystems and methods described and illustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may be combined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, or methods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Other items shown or discussed as directly coupled or communicating with each other may be coupled through some interface or device, such that the items may no longer be considered directly coupled to each other but may still be indirectly coupled and in communication, whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise with one another. Other examples of changes, substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could be made without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein. 

1. A system for interactive participation in applications, comprising; a first device operable by a user for selection of an application for participation with multiple participants, the first device further operable for selection of at least one participant to engage in the application; and a second device in communication with the first device and operable by at least one participant, the second device operable for the at least one participant to select to participate in the application with the user of the first device in response to receiving a signal from the first device regarding participation in the application.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is operable for multi-user operation such that the user of the first device is able to interact with the application while the at least participant interacts with the application on the second device such that at least some interactions by the first user are observable by the at least one participant.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein participating in the application is further defined as selection of a least one participant to engage in working on a workgroup application.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is further defined as a game and wherein participating in the application is further defined as selection of at least one player to engage in play of the game.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one participant selects to participate by a single input via the second device that initiates participation in the application by the at least one participant via the second device.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein selecting to participate is further defined as initiating participation in the application by the at least one participant using the second device.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second devices are selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, wireless devices, wireless handsets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, desktop computers, workstation computers, set-top boxes, and game platforms.
 8. A system for interactive participation in applications, comprising; a computing device having a processor; and an interactive application accessible by a user of the computing device, the interactive application operable for selecting multiple participants to invite to participate in the interactive application and further operable to promote communicating a signal to one or more other computing devices associated with the invited participants, at least some of the invited participants using the associated other computing devices to select to participate in the interactive application with the user of the computing device in response to receiving the signal from the computing device regarding participation in the interactive application.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the interactive application is further operable for selection of a minimum number of participants required to initiate participation in the interactive application.
 10. The system of claim 8, where the application is further defined as an interactive multi-participant application selected from a group consisting of video games, productivity applications, and interactive workgroup applications.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device and the other computing devices are selected from a group consisting of mobile phones, wireless devices, wireless handsets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, desktop computers, workstation computers, set-top boxes, and game platforms.
 12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a server and wherein at least a portion of the interactive application is deployed on the server which is accessible by the computing device and other devices used by the invited participants
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein at least a component of the interactive application deployed on the computing device.
 14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presence sever to determine whether participants to invite are available to participate in the interactive application.
 15. A method of participation in applications, comprising: selecting, by an organizer, an application; selecting, by the organizer, multiple participants to invite to participate in the application; sending invitations to at least some of the invited participants; at least some of the invited participants receiving a signal related to being invited to participate in the application; at least some of the participants selecting to participate in the application in response to receiving the signal; and the organizer and at least some of the invited participants participating in the application in response to at least some of the participants selecting to participate.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: wherein the organizer uses a device having access to the application to select and invite the participants and to participate in the application; wherein each of the at least some participants have devices having access to the application, the at least some participants use the respective devices to select to participate in the application participate; and wherein the at least some of the participants select, using the device and via a user interface associated with the application, to participate and in response the application launches on the participant's device.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the user selection is further defined as a single input by the user using the device.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: selecting a minimum number of participants required to initiate the application for participation; and determining whether the participants are available to participate.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the participants are available comprises: a presence server determining whether a mobile device associated with invited participant is accessible; and determining whether the participant has selected not to be disturbed.
 20. The method of claim 15, further comprising: wherein the organizer uses a mobile handset and the application is further defined as a game; and wherein at least one participant uses a personal computer. 